Space

Saturn’s moon Rhea and the shadow of Saturn’s rings

I stumbled on this beautiful image of Saturn’s moon Rhea – and the shadow of Saturn’s rings – a few days ago. I’ve had it open in my browser ever since. In this beautiful Cassini spacecraft image, Saturn itself is in the background. The moon Rhea is gently lit in silhouette. The dark lines are a wide shadow cast by Saturn’s rings, which are seen nearly edge-on.

Rhea
Saturn's moon Rhea, and the shadow of Saturn's rings. Image Credit: NASA.

Click here to expand image above

In this image, we’re looking toward the anti-Saturn side of Rhea – as if we were looking toward Earth from the far side of our moon. We’re looking toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

Rhea is 1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles, across. It’s small compared to Earth’s moon, which is 3,475 kiometers, or 2,159 miles, across.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 8, 2010. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Rhea and at a sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.

Bottom line: Check out this great Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn’s moon Rhea in front of the backdrop of Saturn. In this image, the rings are casting a shadow on the planet.

Posted 
December 4, 2011
 in 
Space

Like what you read?
Subscribe and receive daily news delivered to your inbox.

Your email address will only be used for EarthSky content. Privacy Policy
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

More from 

Deborah Byrd

View All